Oversight Commissions

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Intent

To prevent a conflict of interest in oversight or approval bodies being directed by the same executive branch they are supposed to oversee.

Proposal

Oversight commissions conducting oversight of the executive branch must be enacted by the legislature and organized under the investigative branch.

The legislature shall have an oversight committee comprised of members of the legislature to conduct oversight of the investigative branch and judicial branch.

Discussion

It is an immense conflict of interest for the executive branch to select who will be reviewing its plans or conducting oversight of its operations.

Oversight commissions are created by the legislature. To avoid a conflict of interest with both the executive branch and a future partisan legislature that wants to abdicate its oversight responsibility over the executive branch, the legislature should create all oversight commissions in the investigative branch.

This also aligns with the functions of the investigative branch in requesting documents from other agencies or the public and interviewing personnel and officials of other agencies or members of the public involved in any matters under investigation or subject to oversight.

A future legislature that desires to end oversight of some executive branch function can enact a new law disbanding an oversight commission. Thus the legislature’s ability to make changes is preserved, while making such changes explicit and known to the public.

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